Do you have a heart for the prodigal?

Maybe they are right next to you as you shop.

Even Myer can be full of the Spirit of God, where a prodigal might come home.

Read on to be inspired to stop for the one as you go.

I had a short amount of time to do some chores, wanting to get back home to complete some study. Heading to the local shopping centre, I felt led to walk through Myers (a local department store) on the way to the shops I had to visit.

The day before, I had completed my first treasure hunt list.* As I walked, I thought I may just find a treasure as I go.

I bought a t-shirt in Myers for my husband, where a beautiful woman served me. I asked if I could pray a blessing for her, telling her she was obviously a blessing to so many others with her lovely disposition.

She agreed.

I felt nothing in particular as I prayed for a 10 fold return on the blessing that she had been for others. I simply trusted God followed the blessing through.

I then headed towards the escalators, feeling that I was to go upstairs through the Myer department store.

As I went up the escalator, I saw C. I had prayed for her before. She had Grave’s disease, and it was causing her right eye to bulge. She had told me it could eventually cause blindness. I called out to her as she headed up the escalators and I asked how she was.

‘I’m losing more sight,’ she said as she pointed to her eye.

I offered to pray a “quickie” since she was heading back to work after a break.

She agreed.

I asked if I might lay my hand on the side of her face. She agreed, and I prayed, quoting ‘the blind shall see.’

She immediately felt something in her eye area.

I laughed.

‘Your eye looks less bulging than before. Go check it out in the bathroom,’ I said.

She left excited, saying she would.

I looked at the bed linen on sale in Myers, but felt prompted to head to another store. There, I received the best product at the best price.

‘God’s favour and blessing,’ I thought.

I then returned some shoes, feeling I needed to head straight back through the third floor of Myer to go home.

‘I’ll stop for a takeaway coffee,’ I thought.

As I headed through the 3rd floor, God reminded me I needed to buy some pyjamas for my son Matthew. I smiled, feeling great. This limited shopping time was turning out to be an excellent time of prayer, ticking off chores, and blessing and favour all rolled up in one.

A smorgasbord outing with God!

I stood with my purchases at the cash register and waited. An older lady stood by me. She was anxiously waiting and hoping her credit card would work.

It didn’t.

I wanted to get home, but remained calm and I offered to pay for her goods.

She accepted and then told me about her grandkids. As she did, she cried.

Gently I said, ‘wait for me, and I will pray for you.’

She waited as I paid for my purchase and we stood to the side and prayed. She wept quietly under the anointing.

She then poured her heart some more.

I wrote off the rest of the time I had left and figured God would redeem the time. She was far more important. I suggested we have coffee (I knew I was getting my coffee at some stage).

She told me her story while I bought her a hot chocolate.

We found a couch and sat down; I offered to pray some more.

She had arthritis, so I held her hand, and commanded the arthritis to go.

As I did, I felt to help her find where God was for her, help her find her ‘God space.’**

When she had located where God was for her, she said,

‘God is way up in Heaven, and I am way down here with you.’

We were still sitting in Myer still and I said,

‘Well, ask Him to come closer.’

She did.

I asked her where He was.

‘On the couch opposite us,’ she responded.

‘Do you want Him to come closer?’

‘Yes,’ she said.

‘Ask Him to come closer,’ I said.

She did, and she cried.

The anointing grew heavy.

I asked again,

‘Where is God for you right now?’

‘Jesus is kneeling, right in front of me,’ she said.

‘He’s forgiven me.’

I gently suggested that she could tell Him all she wanted to tell Him.

She wept and said ‘sorry’ for being away from Him.

I then felt prompted to say,

‘Would you like to ask Him into your heart?’

She replied she had a long time ago, so I asked

‘Do you want to ask Him again, afresh?’

‘Yes!’ she said.

So there, in the middle of our local department store, she recommitted her life to Him. A prodigal daughter came home.

She shook and wept as he healed her broken heart.

The anointing was very strong and thick.

Indeed, it had grown stronger and stronger each time she asked Him to come closer and closer. I shook a bit and could feel the Holy Spirit all over us.

She commented,

‘I can feel a tingling on and in my hands.’

We talked some more, and she asked the Holy Spirit to come and wash her clean and back into her heart.

After she had recommitted her life to Jesus Christ, I prayed and told the demonic to go, to never come back and for the Holy Spirit to fill her completely up. I also prayed for an impartation of the gift of healing (she said she wanted it–her husband was in a wheelchair because of some condition).

We talked about church, and I gave her my number. I mentioned I was going to a seminar where Joshua Mills was speaking, and that I had seen an arm grow the last time I saw him speak.

‘My husband’s arm is shorter than the other,’ she said.

A coincidence I thought? No.

I told her that her husband could receive healing for his arm, and she said she wanted to get back to church.

I made some suggestions, and we talked a little longer.

We went to leave together, talking as we walked through the shopping centre. I gave her a hug and a kiss, telling her God loved her so very much, that He had sent someone to be there, to call her Home to Him.

Throughout the entire ‘encounter,’ she said, people had been watching us. She said there was a man during our coffee who looked just like a man from her past. He was a Christian man that had cared for her when she had postnatal depression, after her first child, many years ago. This was also no coincidence – God was so very on her case.

As we parted, I told her she was an answer to my prayers–that the prodigals, the orphans would come home.

God set her up; God set me up, because…

God is Good!

© Beth Kennedy 2022

*see Kevin Dedmon’s book – The Ultimate Treasure Hunt

**Dr Diane Divett has written several books on God Spaces. Helpful ones for those interested are ‘Refocussing and God Spaces a holistic counselling theory and practice’ by Dr Diane Divett (2011) Lambert Academic Publishing. As is well ‘God Spaces to Refocus’, Dr Diane Divett (2018).